“I haven’t been here since I was a child, and Mother showed me the entrance,” she explained. “You are not hurt?” she asked, her eyes glancing over me, checking.
“No,” I smiled back. “Show me! I’m excited too!” Her joy really was contagious.
She turned back to the wardrobe and opened the door. Releasing my hand, she knelt down and removed a false bottom to the wardrobe. It wasn’t a large wardrobe by any means. It would hardly hide one person behind some coats. The false bottom lifted easily enough; a glimmer of magic reflected off the edges and revealed a ladder.
“It’s a hatch,” I stated.
“But where does it lead?” Selene asked, turning to grin at me. “Follow me,” she instructed and stood, confidently lowering herself through the small hatch and descending the ladder.
“Don’t keep me waiting, pet,” she said as she descended past my view.
The hole the hatch revealed was black when I looked down. I couldn’t even see Selene. Maybe her hair camouflaged her. I was nervous, fearful of a fall—how far I didn’t know.
Shakily, I tried to find the first rung of the ladder and held onto the sides of the wardrobe, my knuckles turning white with how tightly I grasped, scared of falling. I screamed in fright when I felt a hand wrap around my ankle.
“It’s only me,” Selene said softly while guiding my foot to the rung. “Don’t be so fearful,” she reprimanded gently, but I heard the annoyance in her tone, the impatience.
“Yes, ma’am,” I replied and took a steadying breath before lowering myself fully into the hatch.
“It’s not far, pet,” she told me. “You could let go, and I would catch you,” she suggested.
“That’s okay,” I said as blackness surrounded me.
“You trust a random shifter to catch you but not me?” she said, referring to Mhari.
“That was different,” I complained while gripping onto each rung as tightly as I could.
“Different how?” she asked. “I’m at the bottom; you only have a few more rungs,” she informed me.
I felt her hands on the back of my calves, and with another rung they moved to my waist, and she pulled me unexpectedly from the ladder.
I produced a screech of fright before I was placed on my feet.
Surrounded by darkness, I was relieved to see Selene’s eyes glowing bright.
“Well, tell me, how was it different?” she asked.
The blackness felt like it pressed in on me. I had no idea how large the space I was, standing in was and even the light from the top of the hatch did not descend this far.
“It was a different situation, Selene. Stop being jealous,” I told her frustratedly. It was colder where we were, and I suddenly felt very uneasy, unsafe.
Selene growled, her eyes narrowing. “Do not accuse me of jealousy,” she warned.
“Then stop acting so,” I replied.
I jumped in fright at the feel of her hand taking me by the jaw. “Enough insolence, or I’ll leave you here alone,” she threatened.
“You wouldn’t dare,” I replied, but I felt my heart rate rocket at the threat.
She turned her face from me, and I was deprived of even the glow of her eyes—complete blackness.
“Selene, you wouldn’t?” I asked.
She turned back to me. “Why do you doubt me?” she asked, and moved her hand slowly from my jaw, down my neck, resting her fist around my throat like a necklace. Oddly, it calmed me. The way her fingers pressed against my racing pulse was soothing. She was with me—I wasn’t alone in the darkness.
“I don’t,” I replied, and she growled in response. “I don’t mean to. It’s just—it was a different situation. I had no choice; it wasn’t about trust. I was running from the academy guard—I was trying to get to you! I’d have jumped with no one to catch me if I really had to,” I explained.
“And you can’t threaten to leave me here in the dark and then ask why I doubt you. That’s not fair,” I told her, anger bubbling to the surface.
